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But up on the bridge—the 27ship’s command center—it’s quiet as a library. Four Carnival officers and the St. Thomas harbor pilot gaze at banks of monitors
and gauges. Positioned on the bridge’s port wing, Captain La Fauci alternately looks to the bow and stern while carefully coaxing the throttle. He issues commands softly and succinctly, his lyrical Italian accent
rolling effortlessly across the room.
Though it takes the hard work of more than a thousand crew members to keep things running smoothly aboard a cruise ship like Carnival Triumph, the chain of command ends with one person: the
master of the ship, the captain.
“It is a role of decision-making,” Captain
La Fauci explains. “You must have confidence and control. You must love the profession and know you can do the job.”
SEAWORTHY
His roots are entwined with the sea. “The sea is in our blood,” Captain
La Fauci says of himself and Carnival’s other captains, who all hail from Italy and its renowned nautical schools. “The skills of Italian seamen are known all over the world,” he notes proudly. Saltwater runs deep in the veins of this captain born in Sicily. His grandfather was a well-known fisherman in his Sicilian village. His father, who lived to be 92, was a seaman and fisherman who continued fishing until the age of 89. Captain La Fauci followed their love of the sea and went to nautical school at age 13, like many young Italian men. It took him years of education, decades of experience and proven expertise to achieve the lofty rank of captain. “When I was young, there were nautical schools all over the country, each with a thousand students or more,” he says.
TOP TRAINING
He chose the nautical program in
Messina, Italy, an intensive five-year regimen
that covered everything from physics to engineering to astronomy for navigation.
After graduating, Captain La Fauci went to work in 1974 on a Chevron oil tanker that ran from Iran to New York. After passing a barrage of certification exams issued by the International Maritime Organization
(IMO), he began working his way up through the ranks. He left Chevron and joined Carnival in 1983 as third officer on Mardi Gras. He was promoted to master of Holiday in 1998.
The leap from oil tanker to cruise ship “is not so different up here,” Captain La Fauci notes. “But the training and safety requirements to operate a passenger vessel like this are significant. There are many IMO certifications focused on the safety of our guests and crew.”
Captain La Fauci and the 33 other captains who command Carnival’s fleet of 22 ships each stay with one ship for four months, then go off duty for two months. Captain La Fauci is spending three years commanding Carnival Triumph, then he’ll devote the next three years to a rotating position as captains do. With 24 years of service with Carnival, he ranks second in tenure among all “Fun Ship” captains.
LIFE AT SEA
Like his crew, Captain La Fauci lives aboard Carnival Triumph, whose itinerary he loves. His private quarters consist of a comfortable, but not extravagant, office, living area, bed and bath.
Just steps away, he swings open the bridge’s heavy steel door, unveiling Carnival Triumph’s nerve center. Glass wings that extend out on both the port and starboard sides allow almost a three-quarter-circle view. Long blue consoles hold a dizzying array of gauges, buttons, joysticks and glowing
video screens, giving the whole place a Starship Enterprise ambience.
The bridge is the eyes and ears of the entire ship. Captain La Fauci easily moves among the instrumentation, cycling through computer screens that provide data on everything from the amount of water allocated for ballast to the status of every onboard smoke detector. The bridge is the eyes and ears of the sea too. Not only are officers currently aware of a vessel
miles away at 295 degrees, for example, but they also know it’s a 30-foot tow barge headed for Jacksonville, Florida.
Noticeably missing is an old-fashioned ship’s wheel. “The early Carnival ships had them,” Captain La Fauci says. “But these vessels are so big and powerful, the new equipment functions better.” Carnival’s modern fleet features a barrage of sophisticated
equipment, “but we still do many things manually,” he explains. “Technology is not perfect. You still need an xperienced
eye to take into consideration wind and currents.”
ALL OVER THE SHIP
Four crew members—two helmsmen and two other officers—man the bridge around the clock. Each works a four-hour shift here, then attends to other duties, such as port logs. “My day begins right here,” reports
Captain La Fauci, pointing to a wall displaying the latest weather data. He analyzes
conditions, conferring if needed with two former Carnival captains stationed at corporate headquarters in Miami.
Like many jobs today, e-mail and other computer work absorbs a chunk of the captain’s day. When not on the bridge or in his office, Captain La Fauci conducts a daily ship inspection to check on the maintenance and general cleanliness of the vessel, noting something as small as a handrail that needs a coat of varnish.
His entire week’s activities—both his myriad work responsibilities and his personal
time—are conducted with nautical precision. He works out in the gym three evenings a week and allocates time for exercise
and fresh air while in port. An avid hiker, Captain La Fauci fondly recalls
hiking the mountain trails of Alaska’s Inside
Passage while captain of Jubilee. Now, with Carnival Triumph’s Eastern Caribbean itinerary, he looks forward to his weekly mile-long swim at Grand Turk.
Onboard, his schedule includes time with guests, incorporting both a Monday night cocktail reception and a Thursday evening gathering in the ship’s Oxford Bar. “I have met so many interesting people—ambassadors, scientists, business leaders,” Captain La Fauci remarks. “And I particularly enjoy returning guests. People tell me they have taken a particular cruise because I am here, and that makes me very proud.”
The most difficult aspect of his schedule? “Time away from my wife and my beautiful daughter,” he responds instantly. Captain La Fauci’s wife and 4-year-old live in North Yorkshire in the United Kingdom, and he sacrifices months away from them to command his ship. They join him on the ship for three to four weeks and spend his two-month leaves with him in Sicily.
But for the rest of the year, his responsibility
as captain weighs heavily, “You never forget that you are responsible for 5,000 people,” he explains. “You cannot be nervous about making mistakes; you must be confident you won’t, because this is a no-mistakes job.” Which is undoubtedly why Captain La Fauci enjoys the end of each week’s cruise. “There’s great satisfaction
in knowing everything went smoothly, the guests are happy and everyone is back safely,” he says.
Yet at 4 p.m. Saturday Captain Francesco La Fauci is back on the bridge, focused on the task at hand. Cool and collected, he guides Carnival Triumph away from Miami, out into his home on the open sea. “ TECHNOLOGY IS NOT PERFECT. YOU STILL NEED AN EXPERIENCED EYE TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION WIND
AND CURRENTS.”
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Not from the U.S.? 
